One fact Milton Gay knew about his “Uncle Milton” was that he died in World War II.
The uncle, 2nd Lt. Milton Hymes Jr., went missing in action in a plane crash on a World War II bombing mission off Denmark’s southern coast in June 1944. The then-U.S. War Department issued a Finding of Death in June 1945, and Hymes Jr. was declared non-recoverable in May 1950.
“My grandmother, Georgia Hymes, used to say that losing him and not knowing where he was was like a hole in her heart,” Gay said.